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2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part II

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In Part II of the 2024 Study Architecture Student Showcase, we take a look at projects that focus on education. From supporting the social integration of neurodivergent students to designing a Makerspace for a university, the featured student work addresses education in various capacities.  

Today’s installment includes proposals to build schools and increase the accessibility of education in underserved communities, designs for South Korean Hagwons, and more!

Sustainable School in Bangladesh by Cesar Augusto Borges dos Santos, B.Sc in Architecture ’24
University of District of Columbia | Advisor: Dr. Golnar Ahmadi

Elin Nordegren once said, “Education is one thing no one can take away from you.” This powerful statement underscores the importance of establishing an elementary school in Modhubagh, a densely populated and predominantly low-income area in Dhaka. Currently, the absence of a local elementary school forces children to embark on long and arduous journeys to reach distant educational institutions. This situation not only hinders their academic progress but also exacerbates the cycle of poverty that grips the community.

According to UNICEF, only 19% of children aged 3-5 in Bangladesh attend an early childhood education program. This alarming statistic highlights the urgent need for more accessible educational facilities. By constructing a new elementary school in Modhubagh, we can ensure that children have better access to quality education, thereby laying a strong foundation for their future.

The proposed school will serve as a beacon of hope, providing a safe and nurturing environment for the children of Modhubagh. It will offer a comprehensive curriculum designed to foster cognitive, social, and emotional development. Moreover, the establishment of this school will create job opportunities for local residents, further uplifting the community.

In summary, building an elementary school in Modhubagh is a transformative step towards breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering the next generation. This project is not just about constructing a building; it is about building a brighter future for the children and the community as a whole.

Instagram: @Golnarahmadi

SNAPD by Baraa Abdolkarim, Yusuf Abdul-Rakib, Lauren Cepeda, Alondra Egure, Angel Estrada, Aneida Flores, Luis Flores, Marianne Friedel, Lorena Gonzalez, Brianna Guerra, Douglas Long, Isabel Vera Lopez, Simran Maredia, Kawa Ojo, Bylasan Shalabi, Jesus Sifuentes & Kyndal Thompson, B. Arch ’24
The University of Texas at San Antonio | Advisor: Armando Araiza

The project was designed for the entrance of the new Makerspace in the newly finished Science and Engineering Building at the UTSA Main Campus. The design allows students from all majors to showcase projects made in the Makerspace as well as welcome students to work on new projects. The studio explored the concept of folding, while transforming 2-dimensional surfaces into 3-dimensional volumes. The volumes organically flow throughout the Makerspace Lobby, displaying the concept of growth and transformation. Color and lights were incorporated into the design in order to illuminate the project and make it feel like an immersive and interactive experience for those entering the Makerspace Lobby.

Field Station: A Land Based Elementary School by Huê Bùi, M. Arch ‘24
University of California, Berkeley | Advisors: Neyran Turan (Primary Advisor) & Liz Gálvez

Field Station proposes a land-based elementary school as a response to the growing disconnect between people and land in industrializing rural Vietnam.

Land is big and school is small. Field Station is situated in Bac Giang, Vietnam, and centered around the lychee tree, the region’s key agricultural export. The school is located on an existing field to foster direct, place-based knowledge. The school is realized as a trail, integrating local land maintenance practices into both its pedagogy and architecture.

In the flat topography of the site, lychee trees are grown on mounds to help the roots stay above flood level and protect them from weeds. Field Station comprises interventions around these lychee mounds, organized like an almanac that suggests how architecture can adapt seasonally to facilitate different programs and spatial organizations during different planting stages throughout the year. The scroll drawing experiments with depicting both time and space in a two-dimensional medium. Read from right to left, the drawing aims to depict Field Station at four points of activation: Spring school during flower development, Summer school during harvest, Autumn school during ground preparation, and Winter school during canopy development. 

Land time is long and school time is short. Yet both are cyclical, rooted in repetition and resulting in growth. Field Station explores time across scales: the time of a human, a tree, a school year, an annual crop; the time of growth and decay. Using primarily bamboo and lychee bi-products (branches, leaves, fruits), the interventions aim to promote regenerative agriculture through various composting strategies, proposing the restoration of land depleted by mono-crop as an essential component of land education.

Instagram: @nemestudio, @office.for.example, @ucberkeleyarch

Social Ribbon by Brandon Rosas, Eddie Lam & Huiying Tan, M. Arch ’24
University at Buffalo | Advisor: Jin Young Song

The competitive college entrance process in South Korea has led to the proliferation of Hagwons, after-school private learning institutions. We also observe an emerging trend of commercialized “Study Cafes” in most Hagwon districts. A Study Cafe is a hybrid space between a cafe and a reading room in a library. This project explores a novel integration of Study Cafes into a “vertical school,” maximizing the performance of the cafe space in the context of classroom spaces in Hagwons.

The Study Cafe spaces are all connected as a flow of socialization, like a ribbon. The “social ribbon” is a new vertical school typology featuring vertical and diagonal circulation to encourage social interaction, relaxation, and other diverse activities. This ribbon transforms the Hagwon spaces, creating versatile, programmatic areas that blend the boundaries between levels, including Study Cafes, mini libraries, lounges, and galleries. Accessible from the ground to all levels, the ribbon offers students the freedom to engage in collaborative or private activities, easing the stress of their daily routines. The verticality is designed to provide efficient and diverse behaviors, not only as places but also as means of circulation.

Additionally, the ribbon incorporates a series of angled and protruding balconies that provide outdoor space and shade, enhancing the building’s performance. This design gesture is highlighted on the north façade, serving as a prominent feature that activates both the building’s interior and exterior.

Instagram: @ubuffaloarchplan

Hagwon On The Move by Toni Vargas, Omar Ibrahim & Staci Tubiolo, M. Arch ’24
University at Buffalo | Advisor: Jin Young Song

Hagwon On The Move proposes a transformative intervention in the heart of South Korea’s Hagwon (private institutions) culture. We understand that young students have the most interactive, meaningful, and enjoyable social activities ‘before and after’ classes. While the current Hagwon culture focuses on efficient learning, the architecture lacks the sense of a ‘place’ to linger. We aim to extend this particular ‘before and after’ class time as much as possible. Through an extended walking experience within the building, the project redefines the traditional private cram school experience, creating a vibrant, inclusive learning environment for students of all ages.

The building emphasizes the social and physical benefits of walking, inviting users to explore its 7-story structure via a moderate 1:25 continuous ramp. While the north-facing side of the building is reserved for efficient learning spaces, the south-facing side is highly dynamic, accommodating various programs including flexible studying spaces, a library, and activity lounges.

Ascending to the open roof, users are treated to engaging views across the building through a central atrium, transforming the walking experience into a spectacle. The constant change in the angle at which the floor slabs meet the façade introduces double-height balcony spaces, reconnecting users with nature. This shifting, angular design is clad in terracotta panels that mirror the fluidity of the ramp behind and provide shade and thermal comfort. Additionally, terracotta baguettes extend underneath the panels to provide extra shading where needed.

Hagwon on the Move offers students the opportunity to engage with their peers and surroundings in a dynamic setting that contrasts with traditional education spaces. Embracing innovation and community, the project is poised to re-evaluate the learning experience in vertical spaces.

Instagram: @ubuffaloarchplan

Down Syndrome: A Path to Independence by Luis D. Maldonado-Albertorio, B. Arch ’24
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres, Juan C. Santiago-Colón & Manuel De Lemos-Zuazaga

Down Syndrome is a condition observed in different parts of the world, and people with this condition are often perceived as incapable of doing what a neurotypical person would do. However, in many cases, these individuals do not achieve independence because appropriate approaches for their integration into society are not adopted. There is a mistaken belief that a simple program will solve their problems. People with Down Syndrome may have intellectual disabilities, motor difficulties, and some distinctive features in their bodies, but this does not mean they cannot improve and advance toward a successful life. It is crucial to work with them from an early age to achieve great results in adulthood.

The project proposes an idea where architecture performs a central role in creating a space specifically designed for people with Down Syndrome to learn and progress towards an independent life.

The architectural proposal is located in Puerto Rico, in the city of Ponce, at a site that is currently an incomplete and abandoned sports complex. This represents an opportunity not only to improve and develop a master plan for the complex but also to implement an educational proposal for children with Down Syndrome. Being located in an existing sports area, the project will help improve the users’ motor skills and allow for the “Special Olympics” to take place for this community, fostering an exchange of experiences and learning between neurotypical individuals and children with Down Syndrome.

From an architectural perspective, the idea is to implement ludic areas that will make learning efficient and enjoyable, helping to improve both mental and motor aspects. Additionally, various programs specifically designed for these users are implemented, such as the simulation of a home, located in volumes of geometric shapes. These colorful geometric shapes aim to help the users clearly identify different spaces.

Instagram: @daniel_albertorio30

Architecture for Autism Spectrum Disorder: In Search of Social Integration for People with ASD by Jorelma Alfaro-Padilla, B. Arch ’24
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico |Advisors: Pedro A. Rosario-Torres, Juan C. Santiago-Colón & Manuel De Lemos-Zuazaga

Over the years, statistical studies have demonstrated the exponential increase in diagnoses and prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) globally. This is a lifelong condition implying that each diagnosed individual receives personalized treatment, and it is primarily characterized by its impact on individuals’ communication skills. With the growth of this community, the need for spaces that foster the social integration of the autistic community with the neurotypical population has become more apparent. Although the autistic community must be fully attended to, early diagnosis and care allow for the identification of strategies and the insertion of individuals with the condition into environments that enable full development adjusted to their abilities. In this context, architecture becomes a tool for designing spaces that meet the needs of autistic users, such as through the use of sensory design theory, allowing for spaces that promote the social integration of these users.

This architectural proposal is located in the town of Caguas, Puerto Rico, on a lot adjacent to a cluster of existing schools. The proposal comprises a set of structures subdivided according to their use: education, treatment, and integration; leading to the creation of five structures: an amphitheater, a treatment center, a K-12 school, a gymnasium, and a school of fine arts. The placement of these structures seeks the social integration of the autistic community through the creation of a connecting axis that facilitates the creation of spaces for interaction between school communities through urban spaces, as well as the interaction of neurotypical and autistic school communities in the fine arts program. As part of the educational program, the implementation of retreat spaces in classrooms for autistic students was considered, so that in the event of overstimulation or lack of stimuli, they can take a moment to recompose themselves and use a space that, in addition to being designed for their needs, becomes an element for the façade design of the K-12 school. Additionally, the structures feature sensory gardens which, together with the vegetation, provide an outdoor retreat space and an area for social interaction. Architecture, in these respects, becomes a mediator for the social integration of autistic users, enabling interactions among users.

Instagram: @jorelma_a

Stay tuned for Part III!

2023 Study Architecture Student Showcase - Part XV

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Welcome to Part XV of the Study Architecture Student Showcase! Healthcare and Well-Being are the central themes of today’s highlighted student work. The projects below demonstrate how intentionality around design and architecture can support the well-being of society, playing an essential role in everyday life. Today, we dive into pieces that reinforce dwelling through spatial culture and reimagine architecture through the lens of a matriarchal community in rural Uganda. Viewers can explore project plans for a site in Puerto Rice that serves as a creative and cultural therapy center. And a classroom designed with adaptive design elements and sensory-friendly features to support neurodiverse and disabled students. Read on for more details!

Made with Matriarchs: Crafting Heritage-Oriented Futures with the Karamojong by Ethan Walker, M.Arch ‘23
Lawrence Technological University | Advisors: Scott Shall (Committee Chair), Joonsub Kim (Member), and Edward Orlowski (Member)

In the rural northeast of Uganda, the ethnic Karamojong are experiencing unprecedented pressures to change their ways of life (Knighton, 2017). As semi-nomadic pastoralists, these peoples are dependent on the health of their herds which is contingent on the health of their ancestral lands. Studies show that land health has deteriorated due to climate change, overgrazing and lack of mobility producing a vulnerability context that has attracted international attention. Interventions by foreign actors and the national government have attempted to improve public health while making recurring calls to transform Karamojong culture away from pastoralism towards sedentism and farming (Dbins, 2013). While appropriate in particular cases, the overwhelming call to cultural transformation could be at odds with the capabilities of the land, potentially undermining the pastoral ways of life. These globalizing influences extend beyond policy-making and have fundamentally altered the process of architectural production and construction in the region.

In response, this thesis proposes an iterative, heritage-based approach to design and construction, crafted to mitigate the increasingly harmful effects of globalization upon the traditionally semi-nomadic societies of northern Uganda. In this approach, alternative futures are imagined by reconsidering the role of the architect in relation to the pre-colonial keepers of the built environment; the Matriarchs. When working within this alternative arrangement, architects would work responsively with Matriarchs, lengthening the process of interaction in favor of a responsive design methodology that strengthens the Matriarchs’ power of architectural self-determination. Strategies to equip pastoralist architecture with greater autonomy are imagined, proposed and filtered through a Matriarch-led process to determine what is appropriated, effective and ultimately in the best interest of their desired way of life.

Instagram: @ewalke_ , @scott_shall

This project was selected for the ARCC King Medal and won the LTU Deans Award – Best Project.

Home Grown: Reimagining Dwelling Through Spatiaculture by Devin Derr, M.Arch ‘23
Lawrence Technological University | Advisors: Scott Shall (Chair), Dan Faoro (Member), and Sara Codarin (Member)

To dwell is to feel at home in a space that: maintains nature (both human and non-human), provides protection, freedom, and peace, and implies a general intent to remain (Heidegger, 1971). To inhabit is to view both house and land as mere assets of monetary value. Without dwelling, people can feel uprooted or disconnected from their homes, and the home itself can disrupt or compromise the ecosystem that hosts it. Unfortunately, home design in the U.S. rarely makes dwelling a priority and often glorifies investment-centric metrics to increase profits and value of the land-stances that encourage inhabitation.

Dwelling not only demands a balance between human-created and naturally occurring environments, but also the simultaneous improvement of both. To achieve dwelling many ancient cultivation practices like permaculture, horticulture, silviculture, and arboriculture are necessary. These practices have a central focus on maintaining and improving natural environments because the benefits they reap directly rely on the natural environment’s well-being. If architecture leverages the 17,000 years of ecological knowledge that these fields have generated, then true protection, freedom, support, peace, and balance may begin to take root (Rasmussen, Wayne D., et al., 2022). Using trees and other living botanicals as a source of structure and enclosure, this thesis aims to trade inhabitation and its associated ailments for an architecture that is quite literally cultivated and alive. There is currently an imbalance of the built and natural environments caused by the commodification of land and architecture, which is best addressed with dwelling reinforced through spatial culture. To investigate this proposition, an extrapolative study of Spatiaculture Dwellings will be applied to several environment and ecosystem types and then analyzed on their performance using the qualifiers that define dwelling.

Instagram: @scott_shall

Newson Conservatory of Music by Jacob Lindley, B.Arch ‘23
Mississippi State University | Advisors: Jassen Callender and Mark Vaughan

I am fascinated with the analytical, poetic, and metaphorical connections between music and architecture. This can only resonate with someone if they understand how to read music. There are so many other connections besides simple scripting, though. Making one of those connections evident to people is important to me: so that more of the world can physically connect something that is so familiar in some genre or another [music] to the way we experience “city,” certainly a city that has a rich history in the blues music. I believe that our world needs more positive influence, particularly in the physical realm. I have and continue to believe that architecture can allow us to aid in the effort to foster positive environments. Architecture should enhance our planet and meet the needs of a society that will make a lasting impression for generations. This is my legacy. In humility, we walk and observe that around us to understand the psyche – that true reflection can be obtained through the simplest of measures.

Architecture should remind you who you are. Architecture is dependent upon the individual and the landscape as its sources of life. It should be a mechanism for empowering, and supportive in its greatest capacity of manifesting life – not only life physically, but life that is generated in the psychological realm too. The rituals of daily life inform the architecture of its role in that support, and, in return, the architecture celebrates the best in life, the individual.

This project was awarded the first place CDFL Capstone Travel Award

Instagram: @jakewlindley, @jassencallender

San・Arte: Art as a Healing Tool by Glorivette Correa, B.Arch ‘23
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Advisors: J. Omar García Beauchamp & Pedro A. Rosario-Torres

The global mental health system is deteriorating, so much so that a large part of the population suffering from a mental disorder does not receive the necessary treatment or any type of help, due to lack of information, insecurity, fear of discrimination or lack of services. While the population served is limited to a general traditional treatment, which in many cases is not the help they need. For this reason, the objectives of this project are to expand the traditional medicine market, by developing new spaces that focus on providing other treatment alternatives (such as artistic-creative therapies), and explore the architectural capabilities that can be achieved together with art and nature, to meet the appropriate conditions in a space to provide these therapies.

This project focuses on the island of Puerto Rico, specifically in the town of Ponce. San・Arte’s proposal aims to develop a center focused on arts, culture and healing. A Cultural and Artistic Creative Therapy Center is then created to positively serve the community and the people. A place that helps raise awareness and educate people about mental health. The center offers four different therapies: art therapy, dance-movement therapy, music therapy and drama therapy. The center also has spaces for artists, theater (indoor and outdoor), and an intensive creative retreat which serves as a safe space away from everyday life and where professionals or those who attend (not necessarily artists) can once again feel inspired, motivated and creative. The center also has different green areas such as terraces and an aromatherapy garden, thus providing different semi-public and semi-private spaces. The number of people who need psychological assistance continues to grow. The arts are an excellent communication tool that also helps us to connect with other people and that is what this proposal seeks.

Instagram: @glorivette_correa

Designing Outside the Lines for Neurodiverse Children by Monica Higbee, M.Arch ‘23
University of Idaho | Advisor: Hala Barakatu

The number of children with developmental disabilities or that are neurodiverse that live within the United States is a rising number. Children aged 3 through 17 are stripped of equitable opportunities within early learning environments and are often filtered through the education system with little to no accommodations for learning or independence in the built environment.

My aim for this project is to systematically identify adaptive design elements and sensory-friendly features that can improve the average classroom and promote independence for individuals with disabilities or who are neurodiverse in the built environment. In doing this, I also aim to find and develop a learning environment that changes the negative attitudes towards disabilities and teaches others how to better adapt the built environment to everyone regardless of ability or disability.

Instagram: @monicahigbee, @halahb2

Architectural Neural Agility: Visions of Architecture through Sensation, Perception, and Self by Skyler Howell, M. Arch ‘23
University of Idaho | Advisor: Hala Barakat

How do we know that our fundamental beliefs of this world are our own? The problem is that the lack of “freedom of will” influences our neurological synaptic pathways; these pathways are strengthened or eliminated passively based of our individual experiences. Frascari was hinting at this notion when he stated, “Just as we think architecture with our bodies, we think our bodies through architecture.” Our vision of reality exists through our nervous systems ability to sense and perceive our environment. Paying attention to perceptions makes way for our nervous system to produce conscious or unconscious thoughts; thoughts can provoke emotions, and exists not only within the present, but memories of the past, and visions of the future. 

This project explores the way our nervous system builds reality through sensations like sight, touch, hearing, and smell while filtering stored object-oriented information known as “schema.” According to Edelman, “Our neural networks are a deeply embodied phenomenon that leads to architectural genesis.”

 

In order to break free from traditional architectural design-thinking, this project proposes a new vision of architecture by actively stimulating neuroplasticity. We need to evoke our nervous systems’ ability to adapt through deliberate actions allowing architects to break free from our existing paths. Translating the architectural design-thinking process by creating new models of an action-oriented “architectural neural-agility” within architectural-genesis.

Instagram:  @ponyboysky, @halahb2

Communal Healing by Tanner Mote, B.Arch ‘23
Ball State University | Advisors: Robert Koester and Sarah Keogh

Younger generations want to live in cities and yet most neighborhoods are afflicted by limited housing choices, disconnection from food sources and public transportation, and often are also dangerous environments for pedestrians. These problems have made existing neighborhoods undesirable. So, how can neighborhoods be systemically redeveloped to address current concerns so that they don’t become exacerbated in the future?

This project proposes the strategic implementation of infill housing and urban food production in the redevelopment of existing neighborhoods. The McKinley neighborhood in Muncie, Indiana was chosen as the location to test this thesis. Initial designs create additional housing that offers different living opportunities, from single-family dwellings to accessory dwelling units. Each design enables
residents to grow their own food via raised beds or vertical towers in an incorporated greenhouse. The ability to be self-sufficient and the visibility of food production will educate and inspire the community and promote continued progression toward sustainable living. Later phases could provide the neighborhood with varying scales of community spaces such as shared gardens, food markets, and education centers to attract and support community members. These latter phases will also have to address existing patterns of public transportation and correlated pedestrian paths for better connectivity.

See you next week for the next installment of the Student Showcase!